Novetron pseudorandom blinky light ring

Blinking lights are good. String enough of them together in a circle and you have a pretty interesting display. Maker Don Roberts builds such a display. It’s called the Novetron Mark I and it’s available in Makers Market.

Like the Decatrons of bygone years, the Novetron displays a circle of flashing and chasing lights. But Novetron uses LEDs and produces thousands of different patterns. It’s a bit hard to understand from a photo, so please take a look at the short video (the icon above).

You can just power it up, and it will generate patterns at random. Or you can use pushbuttons and switches to, setting your own starting pattern, rules, and speed. This lets you explore how simple local rules can create fixed and moving patterns, cycles, symmetry, and chaos.